Former Nepali Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, a moderate figure in the impoverished country’s unsettled politics, died on Tuesday, presenting a potential hurdle in attempts to win greater rights for minorities in a new constitution.Koirala, 78, a senior figure in one of Nepal’s biggest political dynasties, stood down as prime minister in October. He died overnight of respiratory illness, one of his doctors said, at his nephew’s home in Kathmandu.He had helped prepare Nepal’s first republican constitution that, its authors hoped, would take the Himalayan nation closer to stability and peace after years of conflict and the abolition of the 239-year-old monarchy.
